The Famous ZZAP logo

Newsfield Publications

Founded by Roger Kean, Franco Frey and illustrator Oliver Frey in 1983. Newsfield was based in 'sleepy' Ludlow in Shropshire, England.

Frey's superb artwork also featured heavily in the pages of ZZAP - and he and his work picked up a cult following within the ranks of 8-bit gamers.

Gary Penn and Julian Rignall became well known as the reviewers of games. Both had won their jobs after placing as finalists in a video game competition!

ZZAP Sizzler Logo

If you saw the Zzap Sizzle stamp you knew you were looking at a good game

ZZAP Gold Medal Award Logo

If you saw the Zzap Gold Medal award you knew that this game was great!

Why I was so lucky (and my pal Paul!) with Zzap 64

I was so lucky when it came to ZZAP 64 magazine and all of the other Newsfield publications.

All of them were printed in my hometown before being sent out for distribution.

My dad (bless him) worked for the Royal Mail and had to go to the printers every week on a mail run. The print manager and my dad got on well so he used to give my dad a freshly printed copy of at first Crash, then each of the Newsfield prints as they were published (ZZAP was the second mag and Amtix the third).

At the very least I would have my brand new and pristine copy of ZZAP a good ten days before it hit the newsagents shelves.

Sometimes, depending on which day my dad was at the printers I would get a copy 'hot off the press' from the first batch printed.

There were definitely a few instances where I was the first person in the whole of the UK to read the brand new copy of ZZap etc. How lucky I was.

Break times at school were never the same again as a group of us huddled round a copy of our favourite magazine, getting a heads up on which games were worth getting hold of.

Whilst mere mortals had to wait for more than a week to see if the latest game from Ocean or Elite was any good, we already knew the score. Good times indeed.

Once I was finished with ZZAP I used to give it to my friend Paul.

He was a C64 gamer whilst I was a Spectrum games player. I always enjoyed reading ZZAP (almost as much as Crash!) and it was good to see how some games compared on different machines.

Zzap 64 Front Cover By Oliver Frey

The Front Cover To Zzap 64 From March 1986. Superb artwork from Oliver Frey

The Last Ninja - C64

Mercenary - By Paul Wokes

Ballblazer on the Commodore 64

Zzap Sizzler or Gold Medal, both were worthy accolades

As ZZAP became more and more popular, software companies realised the influence it held over paying C64 gamers.

If you received a good score for a game in the magazine then generally more people would go and buy it.

Anything over an 80% rating was considered an essential purchase - and if your game hit the magical 90% mark then you were given the 'sizzler' moniker.

A few truly excellent games received the 'gold medal' award - and most of these are true classics in the C64 gaming archives.

ZZAPers - give us your thoughts please

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Michael Murchie 6 years agofrom Parts Unknown

What a great hub, and a great magazine. I really do miss it, and I don't think for me that any other mag could ever replace Zzap64 for me, which is a shame!

uridium5 7 years ago

Hey Guys

Yeah, I started on the Vic 20, but moved onto the 64, however, my best mate had the SPectrum, so I got the best of both worlds. It was fun to argue which was best, but at the end of the day, some games were better on the speccy, and some better on the 64.

To clarify, games had to have at least 97% to get a gold medal, although, to confuse the issue, I saw a game once get 97% but was only made a Sizzler!

Did you know that apparently Julian and Gary didn't really get on that well, that's what I heard Gary say, but we have to rememeber that back then, they were still pretty young, practically kids!!

Author

Martin Allan 7 years agofrom Sunny Scotland

Hey Phil - thanks for the comments.

I was lucky getting the Newsfield mags 'hot off the press' as it were! Kids at school always used to ask me when I was getting the next 'Crash' or 'ZZAP' etc.

I take it you were a C64 gamer?

uridium5 7 years ago

Wow guys, that was quick!!! Thanks very much for creating this upon request, I really appreciate it. It was cool to read your story about how you got you hot off the press copies. I was originally from a town which is near Yeovil, Somerset which is where the first few (3 I think) issues of Zzap64 were written before they moved up to Ludlow to be near the Crash team. Anyway, thanks again. By the way, I read that you felt old, what made me feel reaaaally old was when I saw a picture of Gary Liddon on the bet (google him),he has white hair now!!! AGH!!

Anyway, look forward to the Amstrad one or whatever you create next.

Cheers, Phil.

uridium5 7 years ago

Wow guys, that was quick!!! Thanks very much for creating this upon request, I really appreciate it. It was cool to read your story about how you got you hot off the press copies. I was originally from a town which is near Yeovil, Somerset which is where the first few (3 I think) issues of Zzap64 were written before they moved up to Ludlow to be near the Crash team. Anyway, thanks again. By the way, I read that you felt old, what made me feel reaaaally old was when I saw a picture of Gary Liddon on the bet (google him),he has white hair now!!! AGH!!